A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper 1)

"Rachel, would you like to get a cup of coffee or something sometime?"

"That sort of depends, Charlie. I'd need you to answer a few questions first. "

"Of course," Charlie said. "If you don't mind, I have some questions, too. " He was thinking, What do you look like naked? and How long before I can check?

"Fine, then. " Rachel put down The Ballad of the Sad Caf?? and counted on her fingers.

"Do you have a job, a car, and a place to live? And are the last two things the same thing?" She was twenty-five and had been single for a while. She'd learned to screen her applicants.

"Uh, yes, yes, yes, and no. "

"Excellent. Are you gay?" She'd been single for a while in San Francisco.

"I asked you out. "

"That means nothing. I've had guys not realize they were gay until we'd gone out a few times. Turns out that's my specialty. "

"Wow, you're kidding. " He looked her up and down and decided that she

probably had a great figure under the baggy clothes. "I could see it going the other way, but. . . "

"Right answer. Okay, I'll have coffee with you. "

"Not so fast, what about my questions?"

Rachel threw out a hip and rolled her eyes, sighed. "Okay, shoot. "

"I don't really have any, I just didn't want you to think I was easy. "

"You asked me out thirty seconds after we met. "

"Can you blame me? There you were, eyes and teeth - hair, dry, holding good books - "

"Ask me!"

"Do you think that there's any chance, you know, after we get to know each other, that you'll like me? I mean, can you see it happening?"

It didn't matter that he was pushing it - whether he was sly or just awkward, she was defenseless against his Beta Male charm sans charisma, and she had her answer. "Not a chance," she lied.

"I miss her," Charlie said, and he looked away from his sister as if there was something in the sink that really, really needed studying. His shoulders shook with a sob and Jane went to him and held him as he slumped to his knees.

"I really miss her. "

"I know you do. "

"I hate this kitchen. "

"Right there with you, kid. "

The good sister, she was.

"I see this kitchen and I see her face and I can't handle it. "

"Yes, you can. You will. It will get better. "

"Maybe I should move or something. "

"You do what you think you need to, but pain travels pretty well. " Jane rubbed his shoulders and his neck, as if his grief was a knot in a muscle that could be worked out under direct pressure.